


Standing Saturday Tradition

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Crossword Puzzles, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-03 15:18:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11534928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)





	Standing Saturday Tradition

Alex sidled up the table she shared with Spencer every Saturday morning, a sleepy smile on her face and a crossword puzzle book (which Spencer had a duplicate of) under her arm. “Morning, Alex!” Spencer said happily, sitting across the table. 

Since Spencer craved routine and Alex really didn’t mind either way, it went the same every Saturday. She would get there first (her internal clock not allowing her to sleep past 7AM) and grab a seat at the table they both liked. It was right near the window, so the natural light of the morning sun would shine in as they ate. After about 15 minutes, Spencer would arrive and sit across from her and then, leaving their jackets at the table to hold their places, they would get up and grab coffee and breakfast - a sugar with some coffee and a blueberry scone for Spencer, and a coffee with half and half and one sugar, and a piece of plain pound cake for Blake. 

Then the crossword fun would begin. 

Once, Rossi had stopped by for coffee on the way to see his publisher and made fun of them for getting together on a Saturday morning for crossword puzzles, but neither cared. Although Spencer had needed time to warm up to her, Emily’s departure not sitting well in his stomach, he had a special relationship with Blake he couldn’t quite describe - a perfect mixture of mother and best friend. 

After getting their customary breakfast and beverages, they sat down at their table. “Okay,” Alex said. “I’m switching it up. First things first, we pick the same puzzle out of the book and time ourselves. Which one can finish it the quickest?”

“Are you ready to get embarrassed?” Spencer asked with a laugh. This was one of the reasons she loved seeing him outside of work. In the bullpen, he was serious Spencer, spouting facts and figuring out the unsub’s next move before they could themselves, but here, he was relaxed, playful - it was another side of him she enjoyed seeing, and so she tried to bring it out as much as possible. 

“You’re on, Reid.”

They settled on a puzzle, which took nearly fifteen minutes, and then they set a timer. “Go!” Reid said, his face animated as the pen (not pencil) flew across the paper. Occasionally, he would look up to see how Blake was doing, her pen flying at equal speed. It would only coax him to go faster. Smote. Stravinsky. Yaffingale. Guglielmo Marconi. Nothing could stop him now! But Alex was keeping pace. That was part of the fun; she was a linguist after all.

Looking down, he continued to glide his pen across the tiny boxes, his messy handwriting illegible to pretty much everyone but him, Blake and maybe Hotch, and his mother of course. “Done!” Alex smiled, sitting back and turning the crossword puzzle book toward Spencer. Dammit, she was good. “I am the queen. I’m pretty sure my mother would haunt me from the grave if I didn’t beat you.”

He challenged her again and again, but she beat him every time. “Yield, I must,” he smiled, taking the last sip of his coffee. “Let’s just do them without timing ourselves.”

“Good decision,” she laughed. For the next two hours, the two of them finished puzzle after puzzle, occasionally taking breaks to talk about James and his work with Doctors Without Borders. He was fascinated with the way their relationship worked so he was constantly asking questions. And sometimes, just for fun, they would ask the other for help with an answer, even though they didn’t need help. “Danish physicist, contributions to atomic structure and quantum theory, four letters?” Scientists weren’t here strong suit.

“Bohr,” Spencer answered almost immediately. “Niels Bohr. Did you know Bohr developed the Bohr model of the atom, in which he proposed that energy levels of electrons are discrete and that the electrons revolve in stable orbits around the atomic nucleus but can jump from one energy level (or orbit) to another?”

Now that hurt Alex’s brain. “I did not and honestly, even as a linguist, I have no idea what you just said.”

Spencer smiled and went back to his puzzle, thankful that Blake was still willing to listen though she didn’t understand. After another hour, both of their stomachs started to rumble. “Wow, I’m hungry,” Alex laughed, her stomach sounding more like a bear than a human organ. “Wanna go grab something to eat at the diner?”

“Sounds good to me,” he said, placing the pencil in between the pages of his book and standing up. “I’m not going to lie, I’m probably going to finish this puzzle before we order lunch.”

Alex just smiled and allowed Spencer to walk in front of her in the direction of the restaurant. “Oh yea, me too.”


End file.
